When Cadence executives wanted to create a strategy-human resource link, they began by focusing on customer expectations. Their commitment in the systems software business was to be "a good company to do business with." This concept was operationalized by interviewing customers and finding out customer buying criteria and creating a short list of customer expectations. To meet those expectations, Cadence executives felt that they had to also become "a good company to work for." The strategy-HR linkage was designed to build practices that simultaneously made Cadence a good company to do business with and a good company to work for. Its HR initiatives (training, rewards, and appraisals) were focused on bringing a unity between customers and employees.